American Film

American film has been a main source of entertainment for the common American since the beginning of the Twentieth century. Even though film was created in Paris, America has dominated the film industry since World War One. When motion pictures first came out they were usually short silent clips. One of the first full length movies was The Great Train Robbery, this movie paved the path for future movies. After World War One short clips gave way to feature presentations usually lasting a couple of hours, these movies had developed characters and plots.
The film industry also under went some changes after the first war, like instead of having just one writer or editor, companies now had teams. Another big change was the film industry moving from the east coast to California, to a small town called Hollywood which would establish itself as the film capital of the world. It is interesting to see that when film first started out Hollywood was an unknown town but now when people think about the U.S. they think about Hollywood. Films also became an activity for everyone not just the rich, and film stars were known as celebrities world wide. The start of a new era was issued when in 1927 the first talkie came out, called The Jazz Singer. After World War Two more Americans went to movies than ever, but the declined with the invention of television. The film industry responded to this with special effects and spectacle films like Ben Hur, which would give audiences an experience they couldn't get at home. During the sixties many films went back to old genres such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Godfather and The Exorcist. In the eighties when video came out, this seemed like a threat but it actually made profit for the companies, allowing the viewers to see films multiple times. It seems now that the film industry is suffering because so many people download films illegally, but some directors like James Cameron have worked around it, making movies like Avatar in 3-d which could only be seen in theaters. the film industry will always be around like theater.

"American film." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 29 Jan. 2010. http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com/.